The official "I still use VHS" thread

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I can remember when we got our first VCR, an '86 Magnavox rebadged Panasonic. It was a basic two head model with the thumbwheel varactor tuning presets. I was on cloud nine b/c I could finally record "MacGyver" and the Saturday morning cartoons that I liked at the time. Back then, VCR's were the cool thing to have. Now, my flea market friend is lucky to get $10 for a good used one.

Besides tapes of programs recorded off of regular TV, I have a ton of home videos that were made when we got a camcorder in '89. Also a Magnavox and I still have it. My Mother thought we couldn't go anywhere without taking the camcorder.

Many of those tapes are 20-25 years old and still play fine. I wonder if DVD's will hold up that long.

I have a rack full of 25-year-old VHS tapes as well; mostly old TV series, a few movies, and several commercially-recorded tapes. All still play as well as when they were new, with no white mold. I never had that problem with any VHS tape I have ever owned or currently own, either here in my apartment or at my previous residence. Some of you who have had the problem must have stored your tapes in a high-humidity environment. However, it's a good thing that the mold does not affect the tapes. Most of my VHS tapes are irreplaceable, as they have old TV series that didn't last long enough to be released on DVD. If I can find or borrow a DVD recorder some day, I'd like to transfer those old tapes to DVD.

My current VCR is a Panasonic PV-4022 from 2002. It replaced another Panny that ate a tape; I had just taped a movie and was never able to watch it, as the tape jammed in the mechanism. I literally had to wreck the VCR to get it out. Hated to lose that VCR, as it had VCR Plus+ and a beautiful picture; however, I saved the remote, which I found out will work with my PV-4022. I think my VCR has the thick toothed drive belt between the motor and the transport mechanism, which probably explains why this machine has lasted as long as it has without problems. I had a GE-branded Panasonic VCR, my first VCR, in 1984; it lasted six years and worked well, until the heads wore out. When I found out, at a local TV repair shop, that a new head drum would cost $250, I forgot about having the recorder repaired and bought an Emerson VCR shortly afterward. That machine lasted a few years (don't quite remember how many) and was eventually replaced, IIRC, by a Magnavox VCR. I got the latter in the early nineties, so I don't know if it was actually a rebadged Funai (!) VCR or if it was made by some other offshore entity. The Maggie VCR lasted quite a while (probably as long as my Panny has so far), but then, shortly after I moved here in the late 1990s (1999), the machine first stopped recording, then the playback got flaky and eventually stopped. At this point, knowing that the Maggie VCR wasn't worth repairing (I don't remember how much I paid for it when I bought it, but it couldn't have been more than $120), I threw in the towel and bought my first Panasonic. That machine lasted about two or three years (! ! ! -- see above for the story), then was replaced by my present Panny PV4022. That machine is now seven years old and still works as well as it worked the day I bought it.

I also have several DVDs and box sets, now at least three years old, that still play well in my Memorex DVD player. Unless one stores DVDs in an excessively humid or dusty environment, however, I cannot see how DVDs can wear out if they are not played often, since they are not magnetic media. After all, this is why many folks transfer VHS video tapes to DVDs--so as to preserve the programs on the tapes, since VHS videocassettes can and do jam and wear out over time, whereas DVDs have no moving parts whatsoever. Moreover, DVD players have error-detection systems that will compensate for slight scratches on the surfaces of DVDs, so these discs should last quite a while -- a lot longer than VHS tapes.

It will be interesting to find out, however, how many DVDs bought new this year are still playing well, say five or ten years from now. Of course, if anyone needs to replace DVDs these days or are in the market for new discs, most programs, movies and so on are now on Blu-ray discs -- which will not play in standard DVD players; however, ironically, the reverse is absolutely true -- standard DVDs will play in Blu-ray players. Is this a marketing ploy to get people to buy new Blu-ray players, even if their old standard DVD player is working well?